Cargo carrier equipment may include various configurations of rail members, arms, and fasteners designed to assist a user to stabilize cargo such as a bicycle on a vehicle for storage or transport. Conventional cargo carrier equipment can be roof mounted, strap mounted or hitch mounted to the vehicle. These carriers include various fastening systems to secure the carrier to the vehicle.
A disadvantage of hitch mounted carriers, however, is that they are generally bulky and take up a lot of space of the rear portion of the vehicle. Additionally, many of these carriers provide insufficient support to the cargo, such as a bicycle, which may require several points of contact for a secured attachment. Additionally, hitch mounted carriers for multiple bicycles take up a large relative amount of space that is undesirable for the user when the carriers are not being utilized to transport or store bicycles.
The hitch-mounted carriers that extend from the rear of a vehicle, however, often result in making the vehicle more difficult to park, maneuver, and the like. This may result in the carriers needing to either be moved or removed from the vehicle in order to park, effectively maneuver the vehicle, or access trunk space or rear cargo. This, however, can be time consuming and may require the carrier to be stored, which may not be feasible and is not likely preferred.
Current hitch-mounted carriers often are limited as they may not be configured to be pivoted between an in use position and a storage position. There are known bike carriers that are configured with vertical mast frames configured in an upright position that may be tilted between a support position and a loading position such as known by U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,231 to Burgess and U.S. Pat. No. 6,644,525 to Allen. However, these vertical mast type bike carriers support the bikes from a top portion of the bike frame in which the bikes are susceptible to increased damage during transport and tilting of the carrier frames. In these instances, mounted bikes may impact one another as the carrier frames are tilted.
Alternatively, some cargo management systems are capable of being re-positioned while remaining secured to the vehicle. These systems, however, often require the user to go between the cargo management system and the vehicle to re-position the cargo management system, which is often difficult to do. Further, these systems are often very difficult to re-position, require more than one person to re-position, or require the removal of the system from the vehicle before being re-positioned.
Further, various platform type cargo and bike carriers may be provided that include hinge mechanisms that may rattle or are too cumbersome to pivot or rotate with bikes positioned thereon.
Previously known bike carriers suffer from disadvantages that make it inconvenient for a user to transport, store, and pivot at least one bicycle onto them. Therefore, there is a need for a cargo carrier that is capable of transporting and storing cargo that is easy to configure in a more compact position during non-use and to allow access to a rear of the vehicle without further risking damage to the cargo. In view thereof, there exists a need for a hitch-mounted carrier of such design that it affords a solution that overcomes the disadvantages of previously known carriers.